April 1, 1S70.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



75 



transformed into a kind of horn, instead of remain- 

 ing in its normal position in a slight depression ; it 

 looks like a case of prolapsus, if one may venture 

 upon an analogy with the animal kingdom. 



Fig, 71. Fertile Pistils, x 25. 



Pig. "2. Aborted Pistil. 



Fig. 73. Perfect Stamen. 



Fig. 73 represents a perfect stamen. The order of 

 arrangement of these several parts is not constant, 

 as any one may easily be satisfied by examining a 

 dozen or two of the plants : soil, situation, aspect, 

 and other conditions seem to affect these Arads as 

 well as other things. Imperfect female flowers will 

 often be found intermingled with the fertile zone, 

 while the " neuters," like people without votes, are 

 "wholly unrepresented" in the andrceceum. 



Why is Arum maculahm or any one of its family 

 supplied with two sets of apparatus, of which the 

 one is apparently useless ? Can any one answer 

 our query ? Probably nobody can solve the riddle ; 

 but we get some vague and indistinct notion of a 

 law of uniformity running throughout Nature— like 

 the pawnbroker, she rejoices in duplicates — Why is 

 the domestic hen provided with a pair of oviducts, 

 of which one (usually the right) is invariably 

 aborted ? If yon want a greater example, said a 

 friend of ours, if you would like to take a big thing 

 that everybody can see, take the Narwhal {Mono- 

 don monoceros), in which the young animal is pro- 

 vided with the rudiments of a pair of tusks, but 

 one of them almost invariably remains undeveloped 

 in the alveolus, whilst the other grows to a length 

 of ten or twelve feet. No one on earth can tell 

 which of the two will be the one that will sprout : 

 it would be a fine thing for betting men to specu- 

 late upon ; they might make a big tank at Tatter- 

 sail's, and stock it with young Narwhals for 

 " greenhorns " to make books upon. 



The singular structure of this inflorescence in- 

 duced Darwin, in his attempt to personify the 

 salient points of the vegetable kingdom, to speak of 



these spadices as examples of " masculine ladies," 

 dangerous beauties to dally with ; and he compares 

 our little hedge plant with its clavate spadix to 

 Dejanira, the terrible spouse of Hercules, wielding 

 the hero's club. 



'* With net-wove sash and glittering gorget dressed, 

 And scarlet robe lapell'd upon her breast, 

 Stern Ara frowns, the measured march resumes, 

 Trails her long lance, and nods her shadowy plumes ; 

 While love's soft beams illume her treacherous eyes, 

 And beauty lightens through the thin disguise. 

 So erst, when Hercules untamed by toil, 

 Own'd the soft power of Dejanira's smile; 

 His lion-spoils the laughing fair demands, 

 And gives the distaff to his awkward hands; 

 O'er her white neck the bristly mane she throws, 

 And binds the gaping whiskers on her brows; 

 Plaits round her slender waist the shaggy vest, 

 And clasps the velvet paws across her breast. 

 Next, with soft hands the knotted club she rears, 

 Heaves up from earth, and on her shoulder bears. 

 Onward with loftier step the beauty treads, 

 And trails the brinded ermine o'er the meads ; 

 Wolves, bears, and pards forsake the affrighted groves 

 And grinning Satyrs tremble as she moves." 



The medicinal part of the plant is the corm, 

 which in a recent and lactescent state is extremely 

 acrimonious ; this acrimony, however, is gradually 

 lost by drying, and may be so far dissipated by the 

 application of heat as to leave the corm a bland 

 farinaceous aliment. "In this state it has been 

 made into a wholesome bread : it has also been pre- 

 pared as starch ; dried and powdered it is used by 

 the French to wash the skin with, and is sold at a 

 high price under the name of Cypress Powder ; it 

 is undoubtedly a good and innocent cosmetic. Its 

 medical efficacy lies wholly in the active volatile 

 matter ; consequently the powdered root loses much 

 of its efficacy, a circumstance which has caused the 

 omission of piihis art compositus from the latest 

 editions of our Pharmacopoeia." 



Warzel, a German physician, administered the 

 powdered root to dogs, and it killed them in twenty- 

 four hours. 



Whether the volatile principle in which the poison 

 appears to be contained is in abeyance in winter 

 when the sap is down, or whether birds can eat this 

 poison, as we know they can take some others with 

 impunity, we cannot say ; but Gilbert White, who 

 was too good an observer to be likely to have made 

 a mistake, states in his " History of Selborne," that 

 the roots of the Arum are scratched up and eaten 

 by thrushes in severe seasons. 



Lindley tells us that the corms of the Arum 

 maculatum are commonly eaten by the country 

 people in the Isle of Portland ; they are macerated, 

 steeped, and the powder obtained from them is sent 

 to London for sale under the name of Portland 

 Sago. The said sago appears to be chiefly used iu 

 the manufacture of hair powder ; and to the fact of 

 the latter article and sundry cosmetics prepared 

 from it having been in great repute in former days 



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